School Spirits Season 1 Episode 5 Review: The Twilight End Zone

Many TV shows with a mystery spread across an entire season struggle to find the right pace between characterization and answering questions necessary to advance the plot.

At its core, School Spirits Season 1 Episode 5 was filled with mystery, characterization, and, more importantly, heart.

Maddie’s predicament is unique because we’re watching her spirit come to terms with the world she’s leaving behind while simultaneously trying to uncover who was responsible for her death.

It’s a harrowing thought, but despite its name, School Spirits is telling meaningful stories grounded in reality.

Maddie’s realization that she needs to help her mother have closure came out of the left field, but it was widely governed by her watching Wally with his mother almost 40 years after his death.

The dynamic between Maddie and Wally has been interesting because their bond has been a slow burn.

They’re slowly gravitating toward one another, and while I’m unsure whether there are any romantic intentions from either of them, the friendship between them has helped them both change their perceptions of why they’re still roaming the halls of the school.

The writers did a great job of using the event to bring all of the characters together in one place to drive home the fact that the living and the dead are dealing with some of the same issues.

Sandra is filled with hope that her daughter is somehow alive, and it took that to make Maddie realize that her mother won’t be able to proceed with her life unless she gets closure.

Unfortunately, the only closure here is in finding out who killed Maddie.

By the end of “The Twilight End Zone,” the series desperately wants us to think that Claire is involved in Maddie’s death.

Knowing Claire has been up to some dodgy dealings behind closed doors in exchange for high grades was a surprise.

It’s hard to believe that anyone thinks Claire is the killer because it’s rarely the person the narrative implies, with so many episodes remaining.

Claire’s hatred towards Maddie came out of the left field, and while it was hard to watch the younger versions of their characters going through something traumatic, it’s doubtful that alone would be enough to make Claire kill her one-time BFF.

Another thing to consider: Claire doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to go out of her way to kill someone. Her secrecy makes a lot of sense when considering what she’s been doing to perpetuate the narrative that she’s a top student.

People want to believe Claire is the killer because she’s easy to blame. When people try to come to terms with something, they look for answers in places they wouldn’t normally look.

Unfortunately for Claire, her actions put her in the frame, but School Spirits has a knack for pulling the rug out from under us when we least expect it.

The addition of the fallout shelter adds a different element to the mystery because now we also might know how Maddie’s body was removed from the school.

The tension inside the room when Simon and Maddie realized its existence was well played by Kristian Flores and Peyton List.

The development does create more questions than answers, however.

The parameters of the veil between the living and the dead are still very much up for debate, but how would the people in the school not know about another death in that area of the school?

It’s entirely possible that someone has been missing for years and will be rendered dead because it’s been covered up.

If School Spirits has taught us anything, we should expect the unexpected.

Nicole’s journey throughout School Spirits Season 1 so far has lived up to that, and she should be high up on the list of suspects.

We’ve witnessed her pointing fingers at Claire, complaining to Simon for ghosting her, and more sketchy things.

The series wanted us to think something huge would be revealed when she put things in the trunk of her car, but instead, we got this knowing look as though opening the trunk brought back bad memories.

It makes me question what we know about Nicole. Looking back, it feels like she’s been deflecting to the point that she’s been trying to make herself look too innocent.

Whatever the case, I can confidently move Nicole ahead of Claire in my list of suspects.

Admittedly, the list of suspects is small because the series tells a tight enough story that the red herrings are few and far between.

What I would like from the final half of the season is answers, but I wouldn’t mind Simon and Xavier working together to track the killer down, assuming those two are as innocent as we’ve been led to believe.

What are your thoughts on the latest wave of answers? Do you think Nicole could be the person who killed Maddie?

What are your thoughts on the fallout shelter miraculously becoming a plot?

Do you think Maddie realizing her mom had to find closure was the best way forward for the narrative?

Hit the comments below.

School Spirits continues Thursdays on Paramount+.

Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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Derek Hough Praises Sister Julianne Hough Amid Dancing With the Stars Shake-Up

In case you haven’t heard, Dancing With the Stars is having another massive shakeup.

After Tyra Banks announced her departure as co-host after three seasons, the Disney+ reality series announced Julianne Hough, who previously served as a pro dancer and judge, would take over.

On the show, she will co-host alongside Alfonso Ribeiro.

Julianne’s brother, Derek Hough, will also return as a judge alongside Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

Derek shared his support for his sister’s return in an interview with Entertainment Tonight this week.

“You know, it makes sense,” Derek explained.

“I mean Julianne is an alum, you know. She’s won the show twice. She’s a part of the family, you know what I mean?”

“And so when I heard the news too, I was like, ‘That makes sense.'”

“I’ve known for like a few days, but it still was relatively new to me and I was like, ‘That’s perfect,'” he added.

Banks broke the news of her own exit in an interview with TMZ, revealing her intention to focus on her businesses.

I feel it’s really time for me to focus on my business and my entrepreneurship, and also producing more TV — but behind the scenes,” Banks dished to the outlet.

“I think it’s time to graduate from the dance floor to the stock market floor … from the ballroom to the boardroom!”

As for Julianne, the returning star shared a statement with Variety, revealing her excitement about returning.

It is such an honor to be rejoining ‘Dancing with the Stars’ as co-host,” Julianne said.

“The show holds such a special place in my heart from the many years and different roles I have had the privilege of being a part of.”

“The incredible team that brings the ballroom to life every night has been my family for the past 17 years.”

“I am so excited to reunite with Alfonso, Carrie Ann, Bruno, Derek, the unbelievably talented pros, and the amazing cast on the dance floor,” the star continued.

“The energy is magnetic every time you step foot in to the ballroom and I can’t wait to feel it again — and of course to share it all with the absolute best and most loyal fans — for another exciting season.”

A premiere date for Dancing With the Stars Season 32 has not been set.

Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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Shadow and Bone Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Every Monstrous Thing

Shadow and Bone upped the ante for all characters and made for a brilliant episode halfway through the season.

Shadow and Bone Season 2 Episode 4 saw Kirigan directly attack Alina and the Lantsovs while Kaz took his shot against Pekka.

The question is, who succeeded?

David managed to escape Kirigan’s grasp and turn himself over to the Crown and Alina, with important information on Kirigan’s army and state of being.

Genya and Bahgra also moved to escape from Kirigan’s shackles, literally.

Kaz and the Crows took on Kaz’s number-one rival for the first half of the season, Pekka Rollins.

Kaz hit the man where he knew it would hurt. Kaz threatened the safety of Pekka’s son to gain leverage over the man.

He convinced Pekka to sign confessions to the murders that lost Kaz’s rights to the Crow club and to sign the freedom papers for Inej, but Inej wasn’t near the scene.

Inej found some women (and a baby) being trafficked and saved them instead of being nearby, which was Kaz’s plan.

Inej, thankfully, wasn’t needed, but the fact that she wasn’t there may have cost her her spot in the Crow club.

Kaz rattled on about how he needed to trust everyone in his crew and that they needed to stick to the plan no matter what, and Inej broke that trust.

Inej was baffled, and Kaz took it a step further. He handed over the papers he got signed for her freedom and all but kicked her out of the group.

We don’t know how Jesper, or the two newest members, Nina and Wylan, will feel about this, but we quickly became PISSED at Kaz. How could he do that to Inej?

If the confrontation with Pekka went awry, he would have needed Inej there to help bail Kaz and Nina out. But losing all trust in her over one mission?

We hope the two can make up quickly, as things are most likely starting to get back to normal for the Crows, and a new romance has even blossomed.

Jesper and Wylan, after constantly alluding to their past hookup, finally shared a kiss and opted to try out dating.

Fans of the book rejoice! Wesper, the couple teased at from the start of the series, is finally coming to fruition. We are excited to see their relationship grow on screen.

Something that doesn’t count as a romance also occurred on screen: Alina agreed to become engaged to Nikolai.

Much to the surprise and dismay of his family, Nikolai announced their engagement and rejoiced in the work that he and Alina would complete.

His older brother proved the most vindictive about it and took Mal to face a court-martial.

Alina continued to hone in on her heightened powers while getting visits from Kirigan due to the bond she refused to believe existed.

She was unaware of Mal’s disappearance, and as she started to get curious about his whereabouts, Visily, Nikolai’s brother, started a toast to his brother he never finished.

He never finished the toast because the shadow monsters, controlled by General Kirigan himself, attacked the party and killed Visily (which, we aren’t too mad about, he was an asshole).

Kirigan’s monsters attacked the whole party, and Alina, Nadia, and Tamar tried to escape, but Kirigan got inside the Sun Summoner’s head again, leading her astray.

They played a game of cat and mouse, which led to Kirigan showing himself to her and the Grisha she tried escaping with.

Kirigan tried to convince Alina to return to his side (because what else was new), but she held firm against his coercion.

Kirigan launched an attack against Alina and her accompanying Grisha, and she fought him off for as long as she could, letting the other escape.

Luckily, she managed to use her boosted powers to send a shot of magic through the shadow creatures (that are relatively unaffected anyway) and hit Kirigan.

Alina managed to get away relatively unscathed, but she’s now on the run again, but without Mal.

Whatever happens next for Alina, the power of the sea whip, plus Tamar and Nadia’s Heartrending ability, may help her survive.

Speaking of people escaping Kirigan’s grasp, Baghra finally saw an opportunity to make her move to escape. She broke her wrists to get out of the shackles.

Thankfully, she broke Genya out of her shackles, and Genya took the time to destroy all the medicinal products in the room before leaving to hinder Kirigan’s healing process.

We are delighted Genya got released from her chains, and hopefully, she can reunite with the already-escaped David.

David made his way to Alina, but Alina did not trust him entirely and sent him to a holding cell.

Hopefully, Genya can also reach Alina and prove David’s innocence.

Matthias is the final person who needs to escape their change, and Nina is still trying to help him.

KAz agreed to continuously pay off the guards to keep him from the fights in Hellgate, but he’s still stuck in Hellgate.

While we aren’t entirely sure what Nina will do, we hope she, and potentially the Crows, can save Matthias from Hellgate. Maybe that’s their next mission!

This episode brought out the best in all the performers and the plot. The story was gripping, tense, and yet still personal when relating to the leads.

We hope the season continues with this quality and this top-notch storytelling.

So Fanatics, what do you think is next for Alina, the Crows, and Kirigan?

Do you think Kaz and Inej will make up? How exciting is it finally see Wesper (Wylan + Jesper) on screen?

Let us know in the comments below! Shadow and Bone’s second season is now streaming on Netflix.

Michael Stack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Your Perception, Your Reality

It’s been a minute since we’ve been able to talk about a series in the Power Universe. And it’s been a sad, sad time.

Luckily Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 1 is here to save us from ourselves and get us back into the world we’ve immersed ourselves in for the past 8-plus years.

And look, the original spinoff will just never go out of style. They’ve come back cool and confident and entertaining as ever. I’d even venture to say this may be the series’ best-ever premiere.  

Tariq has come a long way from the kid we met many years ago, coasting around the penthouse and failing miserably to stay out of trouble. He’s long since grown up and shed a lot of the immaturity he once had, choosing instead to concentrate on school, so he can get his money and take care of himself and his family.

But Tariq can’t stay out of trouble. He will perpetually be in mess, whether of his own creation or otherwise.

After an opening sequence that sees a woman get her hand chopped off (which we’ll unpack later), the premiere starts with Tariq back at Stansfield and very off-kilter.

He’s pretty used to being looked at a certain way and letting it roll off his back, but with Brayden expelled and him literally having no place to live, he’s feeling the effects of his various actions over the years.

The one thing in his life that seems to be going well is his relationship with Effie, which probably feels like a significant source of stability for Tariq, which he isn’t used to. His life has been filled with ups and downs since he was a kid, with people coming and going and fires burning all around him.

Effie is a safety net for him in many ways; as someone, he feels he can be more authentic with in a way he couldn’t with past love interests. The thing about Tariq and Effie, though, is that they’re far too alike in a lot of ways, though it feels like, at times, they don’t even see it.

With Effie now at Stansfield, it should be a time for that relationship to flourish, but it already feels fractured when Effie almost immediately puts up a wall and asks for space without asking for space. And I get it, she wants to be more than someone’s plus one, but you can tell so many of her actions are fueled by her guilt.

And poor Tariq (wild to be saying that) has put so much trust in her, not realizing that she’s not honest with him.

While Tariq actually seemed to be coming from a place of concern, tinged with jealousy, when he told Cane to leave Effie out of their business arrangements, Effie wasn’t about to let out of the business, which sets us up for the weirdest foursome in the world to get back in business together.

I wondered how much Mecca’s presence would loom over the series moving forward because so much about him was unknown. His death brought Blanca back, and now it brings Noma, who has an axe to grind with whoever took her lover away from her and took her money.

Mecca was such an underrated villain. He was lying to EVERYONE, not a truthful bone in his body. And now we’ve got Noma crashing into town, chopping off hands in the name of love. Clearly, she has no idea about Monet yet.

Cane was VERY concerned about returning to work and finding a new connect, and then one fell into his lap. But you should always be careful what you wish for because Noma is a wildcard. Sure, she wants her money, but she also looks pretty interested in revenge.

Because the “good” guys on Power are few and far between, it’s nice when they give us a really rich and dynamic bad guy to root against. And Noma is undoubtedly set up to be just that, especially as she ingratiates further into the story and gets a pulse on what was really going on with Mecca.

What’s great about Cane, Tariq, Brayden, and Effie working together is that there are such deep-rooted secrets between them all, and on a show this messy, you know it’s all going to come to a head eventually.

Should anyone trust Cane? Absolutely not. But it’s not exactly like Tariq should be putting his complete trust into Effie or Brayden either because they’ve also lied to his face.

Think about it. Everyone is lying to AT LEAST someone else in the group.

But right now, their partnership is one of convenience, and they’ll have to rely on each other to move such a significant amount of product, especially with the outside heat on them.

One thing I’ve always loved about Power is that someone could just get out of jail or have all the heat in the world on them, and they will still kill someone without thinking twice.

Bash was incredibly cocky for someone who underestimated the hell out of both Tariq and Brayden. Here he thought it’d be easy to scam the kids for some money, but considering his soliloquy to Tariq about how much he’s like Ghost, you’d think he would recognize just how dangerous he can be.

So much of the series and Tariq’s evolution has been about distancing himself from his father. And it’s kind of a moot point now to compare the two and name one better than the other because they are both drug-dealing killers. But Tariq has always had more empathy than Ghost ever did and a less selfish nature.

That’s not to say he isn’t selfish, but his very nature is to protect those he loves first, and I don’t think you could say the same about Ghost because he was always worried about himself.

But this idea that Tariq has implanted in his brain that he’s somehow a much better person than his father is inherently false, as evidenced by the number of dead bodies in his wake.

Tariq is such a compelling main character, much like all the main characters throughout the universe, because he’s a true anti-hero. He’s not defined by his courage or morality but by his greed and narcissism. And yet, do you really want Jenny Sullivan and Blanca Rodriguez to have the last word?

Tariq: Wow, it’s almost like you care.
Tate: Hate when people act like black lives matter until it matters.

I appreciate that Tariq wants to change the narrative about himself on campus, though it’s comical to hear him try to compare Zeke’s plight to his own. Zeke was a decent guy who mostly minded his business and just wanted to ball out and make something off his talent. 

Tariq, on the other hand, is very much the person people think he is.

But he has to do something on that campus to get people to see him in a different light, or he’ll continue to have issues, which will just be another roadblock to securing his future.

Someone whose future was always predestined for him? Brayden.

As a character, Brayden has by far been the biggest surprise. A once-forgettable kind of character, Brayden has earned his place as one of the show’s stars. And with him no longer at Stansfield, it will give him a chance to further expand beyond being just Tariq’s sidekick, which is a good thing for him.

Lucas: If you ever tell him I told you this, I will cut your balls off. Course Correct was genius. If I was still at Stansfield, it’s something I would have thought of.
Brayden: Thank you. Finally.
Lucas: Taking the stand and telling the whole world you created it is less than genius. That was downright stupid.
Brayden: I had no choice.
Lucas: You’re a Weston. We always have choices.

We don’t need a whole subplot of Brayden’s endeavors at Weston Holdings because we don’t need to see that privilege at work on a weekly basis. But it’ll be nice to see what life looks like for him when he’s doing more than what Tariq asks of him.

As close as the two are, it does feel like we may be headed toward a split as some of the secrets start to unravel, namely the whole Lauren thing.

Okay, I always thought there was an excellent chance that Lauren wasn’t dead because we never saw her body, and that’s like TV 101. If you don’t see a body, then there is always a way for the series to find a way to bring that character back somehow.

So, Lauren’s return at the end of the hour isn’t a surprise, but it does call into question so many other things.

For starters, she’s seemingly staying in Jenny’s family home (or something), and Jenny is very much aware that she is alive. However, it’s information she’s not giving anyone, including Saxe. She also claims to have a CI within the “organization,” and while she could have meant Lauren, what if she meant someone else?

What if there is someone actively working with Jenny currently? Who could that be?

Well, Effie, of course! Clearly, she never killed Lauren and has been content not to say anything about it, naturally, but Lauren got into protective custody somehow, and there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

Effie being a rat actually makes no sense to me because that doesn’t seem like what she’d do. She’s also been a steadfast Tariq supporter, but at the same time, she’s built like Tariq in that she looks out for herself. So, if someone backed her into a corner, would she throw Tariq overboard to save herself? Absolutely.

Lauren’s reappearance will throw so much chaos into the world, if for no other reason than the cascading levels of betrayal that are about to rise to the surface.

And that’s to say nothing of some of the information Lauren got that she can now corroborate.

Welcome back, y’all. You can tell this season is going to be bigger than ever.

Everything Else You Need To Know

  • Maybe it’s the long break between series, but I somehow forget how much plot they pack into one hour of this series. It’s a masterful skill to spin so many narratives around, both independent of each other and connected, and make it all feel exciting and important. There’s nothing else like it on television.
  • It’s probably because we know Lorenzo killed Zeke, but tell me that man didn’t have guilt written all over his face the entire episode! Like at all times, he had ‘I killed my wife’s secret child, former nephew’ tattooed on his forehead.
  • Monet is understandably grieving and putting a lot on her shoulders. But at some point, you have to imagine she will flip a switch and start paying more attention to what’s happening around her. It’s so odd to see her so overly out of the loop.
  • Davis has his hands in seven pots, per usual. But it does seem like he will be driven by his desire to save his brother, which will only happen if he can get him out of jail. There is so much here we don’t know, which makes it a struggle to get invested, but I’m hoping this season will change that.
  • Diana going to Stansfield is an exciting development, and I need her to lean into her snitch era. She should be reporting everything she sees back to Lorenzo because he’s the only one who shows her respect.
  • No offense to Everett, but it’s still wild to me that he’s around. I’m all for Dru’s happiness, but there’s just something about Everett I don’t trust.
  • Tate is a great character, but I hope his storyline meshes more with the bigger ones this season. I like the addition of Professor Bennet as a potential love interest, though. They were making major eyes at one another.

Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 is off to a fantastic start, and I have faith it will only get better.

Let me know in the comments what you thought about the first hour and where you see things going this season! And make sure you watch Power Book II: Ghost online so you don’t miss a minute of the action.

Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.

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95th Academy Awards: Who Won the Oscars?

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